1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a stackable data carrier arrangement including a cardshaped carrier element, at least one integrated semiconductor circuit arranged on the carrier element, at least one external terminal arranged on the carrier element and connected to the semiconductor circuit for making electrical contact therewith, the external terminal being formed so as to circumscribe an edge area of the carrier element and having a respective terminal area on the edge area and on adjoining opposite main areas of the carrier element, the terminal areas being electrically connected to one another.
An equipment plug connector of this general type has already been described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/828,697 filed Mar. 31, 1997, a date which is later than the International priority date of Mar. 31, 1995 claimed for the instant application and consequently not prior art hereto, and is assigned to the same corporate assignee as that of the instant patent application. The special configuration of the external terminal enables a plurality of such cards to be placed on top of one another without any problems, so that a multiplicity of identical data carrier arrangements can be connected simultaneously to a processing device without any complicated additional auxiliary devices. Due to the fact that terminal areas are provided not only in an edge region of the card, but also, are provided electrically connected thereto, on the two main areas of the card, it is possible that the contacting of a plurality of cards placed on top of one another takes place directly in the stack, that is, without any further auxiliary devices, such as a contact rail in the processing device, for example.
The form of contact circumscribing an edge of the card is advantageously realizable from a production engineering standpoint. What is problematic, however, is tolerance adjustment between the various contact points when a plurality of cards are placed on top of one another. Even with flush or snug peripheral external terminals, height and/or thickness tolerances of several hundredths of a millimeter must always be expected from a production engineering standpoint. Depending upon the number of cards stacked upon one another, this rapidly results in a systematic defect which is no longer permissible. This is compounded by the fact that, preferably, eight external terminals are arranged next to one another on each card, which should, however, all ideally lie in one plane. A further problem that is a direct result of the stacking of the cards is that electromagnetic shielding of the memory cards from one another may be necessary.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a stackable data carrier arrangement of the type described in the introduction hereto which is much improved with regard to these problems.
With the foregoing and other objects in view, there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a stackable data carrier arrangement including a cardshaped carrier element, at least one integrated semiconductor circuit arranged on the carrier element, at least one external terminal arranged on the carrier element and connected to the semiconductor circuit for making electrical contact therewith, the external terminal being formed so as to circumscribe an edge area of the carrier element and having a respective terminal area on the edge area and adjoining opposite main areas of the carrier element, the terminal areas being electrically connected to one another, comprising means defining two slots provided in the carrier element, the slots extending parallel to one another from the edge area into the carrier element to approximately the same extent as the external terminal arranged between the slots, so that a contact tooth bendable perpendicularly to the main areas of the carrier element is formed by the region of the carrier element situated between the slots.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, the stackable data carrier arrangement includes a plurality of the external terminals arranged at regular intervals along the edge area, the external terminals, together with the respectively provided slots, forming respective contact teeth.
In accordance with a further feature of the invention, one of the main-area terminal areas is formed with a knob.
In accordance with an added feature of the invention, the stackable data carrier arrangement has a conical thickness so that the thickness, including the projecting knob height, on one side of a substantially parallelepipedal construction of the data carrier arrangement corresponds to the thickness on the opposite side thereof.
In accordance with a concomitant feature of the invention, the stackable data carrier arrangement includes a shield disposed in the carrier element, the shield extending in a plane wherein the carrier element extends, and shielding plates provided on an equipment side of the carrier element, the slots serving as receptacles for the shielding plates.
Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in a stackable data carrier arrangement, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.
The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein: